EZ Open Hand Rail

[Sans1]

Added an "EZ Open Hand Rail" so the wife and grandkids do not have to climb the stairs unnecessarily. I really like it but be warned. I came home after work to find the door open about four times over a month. Each of these times was after I had been in the RV the night before. I have two theories, the first is maybe the door was not closed to start with, maybe when pushing the door shut as I left it failed to latch as in I pushed shut as I was walking away and it looked closed. The second theory is, maybe I 'flung' it closed hard enough that it bounced when the door closed and activated the handle enough to open the catch. I started locking the door this is attached to since the weather turned cold. My recommendation is to be sure you use the dead bolt when going down the road (all of my occurrences happened when parked in the back yard). When I knew I was done for the night, I did start pushing the door closed slowly making sure it caught before walking away and that seemed to fix the issue. Like I said, I still like it. BTW, it is the 'white' handle in the pix; they don't offer it in silver.


UPDATE: So I believe the coming unlatched issue is related to the bouncing (rebounding) of the handle as the door is closed. I did some work inside a couple of days ago and when I closed the door from the inside, I had to close it several times because the latch kept coming open. I plan to see if there is a way to tighten the spring in the add on handle. At least I think there is a spring in it. Another interesting note is the latching issue seems to be exacerbated by the lower the temperature (winter temps in the 20-30 degree range). Either that or maybe because of the increased use of the handle since initial installation.

 

[Sans1]

So we had a heat wave (in the 60's for 2 days in a row) and the door definitely closes easier - as in don't have to try multiple times to get it to stay latched. I took a quick look at the springs that are part of the handle and don't see how I might be able to tighten them. I am wondering if the handle might be binding a tad at the hinge points so tomorrow I will loosen the bracket and see if it returns to the 'ready to open' position with a little more oomph.

 

[Sans1]

Thought it was time for an update. We took the rig out last weekend and the door with the EZ Open would not close unless you gently ‘pressed’ it shut. For giggles and grins, I took the mounting brackets apart and pulled the spring out of each, I stretched them out a bit so they would have more force (stiffer) when installed and re-installed them. After doing this to both the top and bottom bracket springs, the bouncing I described in an earlier post seemed to be fixed. So now I can push the door shut from a distance (like you probably do all the time) and is catches and stays shut. That was on 13 June and today is 23 June and I have come and gone through that door several times while parked in the same spot in my yard and have yet come home to an open door. So it looks like the ‘defect’ was the strength of the spring. An alternate fix might be to add a second spring to both the top and bottom bracket instead of stretching the single one. The way the brackets are designed it looks like this would be the easier/better thing to do. For example, the top bracket appears to be exactly the same as the bottom bracket, however, the spring on the top bracket is installed on the top half, and the spring in the bottom bracket is installed in the bottom half. Adding a second spring to the bottom (for the top bracket) and the top (for the bottom bracket) would be easy. The hard part would likely be finding the second set of springs. Hope this helps. If I stumble upon a part number or source for the springs I will try to remember to update.

 

[Sans1]

Update: The EZ Open part that attaches to the door handle kept coming off, turns out here, the plastic piece that attaches to the handle was cracked. I tried to correct this the best I could by putting a washer on the backside and it worked for a few days, then loosened up and slipped off again. I don’t know how long it was cracked, but it never grasped the handle tightly, seems it was supposed to float a little asthe handle was activated. The piece is molded so it created a channel whenconnected to the door handle.When I put the washer on it, I also made sureit was attached firmly to the handle so no more floating. It did work well until it loosened up again after normal use (as in kids using it, instead of me gently opening and closing the door). A little frustrating. Now that I am home, I will make my own bracket that doesn’t float and see how long that works.

Back to the original ‘bouncing open’ issue. After closer inspection, I can see my door is warped (not sure how I missed this when it was under warranty), the top and bottom make contact before the middle. When the sun hits the door it is enough to pop it open if it is not locked with the bolt - even with the EZ open disconnected. I suspect the door catch is barely catching the edge of the strikeplate in the door frame.

All that said to say this, maybe the disappointment from the EZ open was originally caused by the warped door and the attempts to make it bounce less and removing, tightening the spring and reconnecting the parts multiple times likely caused the crack that let to inability for me to use it.

If there are others using the EZ Open, I’d be curious how well it has held up after a few months of use.

 

[Jv75353]

Thought it was time for an update. We took the rig out last weekend and the door with the EZ Open would not close unless you gently ‘pressed’ it shut. For giggles and grins, I took the mounting brackets apart and pulled the spring out of each, I stretched them out a bit so they would have more force (stiffer) when installed and re-installed them. After doing this to both the top and bottom bracket springs, the bouncing I described in an earlier post seemed to be fixed. So now I can push the door shut from a distance (like you probably do all the time) and is catches and stays shut. That was on 13 June and today is 23 June and I have come and gone through that door several times while parked in the same spot in my yard and have yet come home to an open door. So it looks like the ‘defect’ was the strength of the spring. An alternate fix might be to add a second spring to both the top and bottom bracket instead of stretching the single one. The way the brackets are designed it looks like this would be the easier/better thing to do. For example, the top bracket appears to be exactly the same as the bottom bracket, however, the spring on the top bracket is installed on the top half, and the spring in the bottom bracket is installed in the bottom half. Adding a second spring to the bottom (for the top bracket) and the top (for the bottom bracket) would be easy. The hard part would likely be finding the second set of springs. Hope this helps. If I stumble upon a part number or source for the springs I will try to remember to update.

Adding a second spring may not increase the force, the force will still only be equal to the weakest spring. If space exists I would add a spacer (steel rod,pin or washers) between the spring and end of the cavity. All springs have a spring rate (ibs per inch) by compressing the spring more the force will increase by the the length of the spacer multiplied by the spring rate. Just make sure that the spring is not compressed to solid height when installed. Some hardware stores will carry various sizes of springs another good source would be an industrial supply distributors. You could also check out McMaster Carr on line they have just about everything and you can order it in any quantity with a credit card, they process and ship very quickly and the prices are very reasonable.

 

[MTPockets]

I installed this a couple years ago. It lasted one week before the plastic tab cracked.. It was removed and returned to Camping World who did give me a full refund. I don't recommend it as it just doesn't seem strong enough for regular use.

 

[JohnD]

My recommendation is to be sure you use the dead bolt when going down the road.

Every time I lock the door . . . I use the dead bolt.

Plus the other lock.

I always lock them both no matter what!